


The girls are supposed to ask the guys, right?

by yaoyorozoops



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Eren ships it, F/F, Fluff, Historia is adopted, Historia's POV, Historia-centric, Longer than expected, Manga Spoilers, Multi, Pain, School Dances, angstier than expected, cheerleader Historia, freshman Historia, junior Ymir, just two girls being (somewhat) happy, kinda slow burn, matching dresses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-10-25 22:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10773630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaoyorozoops/pseuds/yaoyorozoops
Summary: Overwhelmed nerd and natural leader Historia develops a hopeless crush on the even more hopeless delinquent, Ymir. With the Sadie Hawkins dance coming up, and Historia’s crush getting more and more serious, she tries to gain the courage to ask Ymir out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Historia helps Ymir with her homework.

Finally, Historia had reached the end of Semester One of her first year in high school. She had barely survived, taking every honors class she could (her adoptive parents told her time and time again that _"we will not raise you to be some kind of delinquent”_ , but they meant well). Midterms had been rough, especially math, which she could _kill_ to actually comprehend. English and science, though, she knew her parents could be proud of, or at least not be mad about. But her favorite subject, really the reason she came to school, was History, namely AP Current World Problems. She had pulled too many all-nighters to pass the exams to actually _let_ her into an AP class as a freshman, but she wouldn't have survived Freshman year if she didn't have that class. She knew all about politics; ever since she was a little girl she would come home and read the news. And she was a leader in the classroom, and in there she felt like her voice could reach hundreds when in fact it was only the twenty-some other kids in her class, who were all older than her.  
But Current World Problems wasn’t the only reason she kept going to class, though. And the other reason just happened to be a lanky, freckled brunette.

Ever since Ymir had come in that first day, Historia had seen something else in her. A familiar aura of loneliness, darkness, and pain. Ymir always held her head so high, talked so confidently, laughed so surely. But Historia could see by the silent look in the older girl’s eyes that all of that was a lie. It was familiar to her, in a way.

The first Friday of the semester, Historia was ready to go home and relax, but she still had a few hours before that could happen since she had to go to cheer practice. Her seventh period was PE, which was the only class she had with Ymir. She was walking out of the locker room and quickly rushing to the football field where the cheer team was meeting.

"Hey, freshman!" She heard behind her. A familiar voice.

Historia whipped around, expecting a mocking and maybe even angry face staring back at her, instead, she got reluctant anxiety.

“I know I probably seem stupid to you,” the upperclassman mumbled, “but I really need help. I always see you studying during class, and you're in some classes that are harder than _mine_ \--”

“You're rambling.” The blonde noticed.

Ymir deadpanned. “Are you going to help me or not?”

Historia sighed. “Okay, but only for a minute. I have to get to cheer practice.”

Ymir showed a small, fleeting smile, almost a smirk, but a bit more genuine. She gestured for the blonde to follow her back into the gym, and Historia followed. The brunette picked up her binder and showed Historia work from the same math class she was taking. She noticed Ymir’s handwriting was messy and slanted.

“I need help with graphing exponential functions.”

Historia nodded. “Do you have a graphing calculator?”

“No,” Ymir frowned.

“That’s okay! Use mine.” She handed the brunette her calculator.

“Thanks,” Ymir muttered.

Historia smiled widely at her. “Okay, so you start by simplifying--”

“Factoring the denominator and the numerator, right?”

“Yep. And then you find the asymptotes…”

Ymir, sitting there next to the younger girl, could feel her breath. She could smell her hair, which, in fact, smelled like lilacs. She could see her lips moving but didn't want to listen to what the blonde was saying. If Ymir was honest to herself, she would except that she already knew everything Historia was teaching her.

An hour and more than 50 problems later, Ymir finally remembered that Historia should’ve been at cheer practice 45 minutes ago.

“Freshman.”

“Huh?”

“Why are you helping me?” Ymir muttered.

Historia replied simply, “because you need help.”

Ymir gave a small smile and allowed the shorter girl, who was happily absorbed in her teaching, to stay, just a little bit longer.

Historia smiled to herself. Though she felt a bit like a rebel because she skipped cheer practice, she felt accomplished. Ymir was actually a smart girl, and it was quite enjoyable to help her. She got home at 4:06, without going to practice. Skipping altogether seemed a lot easier to explain than coming late, at least at the time. She got her homework done by 5:30, the time she would usually get home, and then thought about her time with Ymir. It made her grin to think she was making new friends like everyone told her before starting high school. But she’d never expected to befriend someone straight from the “wrong crowd” her parents talked about.

Ymir returned to her small house at around 6:30 after work and greeted her mom when she walked in the door. Her mom didn't offer much of a reply; she had been sick for a while. “I’m gonna go help the twins and Brandon with homework. Then I’ll… do the dishes.”

Her mom silently agreed, and Ymir went over to kiss her on the forehead. “Take it easy, mom.”  
She helped her brother with his addition, and the twins with their essays, and put the baby to bed. Then she did the dishes, put in a load of laundry, and made them all casserole for dinner. After checking on all her family, it was 8:43. She left for her second job and worked for 5 hours. When she got home, it was 2:14 AM. She slept for about 1 and a half hours, before waking up because the baby was crying. When she finally put down the baby, it was 4:00 AM. She couldn’t get back to sleep, so she decided to try to do some homework. Tying up her dark brunette hair, she opened her textbook and smiled. The numbers on the paper reminded her of her new friend.

Ymir woke up, with her head on her textbook. It was 9:56. She had missed her first period and part of her second. Cursing, she piled her unfinished homework into her backpack. Usually, she would stay home if she slept in, but for some reason, she _really_ didn’t want to miss PE.  
\--

  
First period, second period, third period, fourth period. All of them blurred together for Historia. She took notes, studied, did her work like she was supposed to. But she didn’t really pay attention to what was going on. During lunch, she met up with her friend Mikasa, and they walked to the lunchroom like they did every day. “How’s it going with your boyfriend?” Historia asked the sophomore.

Mikasa shook her head. “I’m a bit worried about him. He never does his homework, he’s always focusing on Rifle or reading about aircraft or some other nonsense.”

“Hmm, I don’t think it’s nonsense. I’m glad Eren has something he knows he wants to do. It’s hard for us all. I’m just a freshman and I still get so much pressure from my parents about what I want to do.”

Mikasa nodded and smiled. “Well, yeah, I… Mostly I don’t want him to go into the Airforce because I’m worried about, you know. It would be easier to keep an eye on him if I join him, but, honestly, that's not what I want to do."

Historia chuckled. “You’re going to be a professional woman boxer, right?”

Mikasa sighed. “If only it was more than just a dream. I wish I could actually be one, but who really does that? Becomes famous from something they _want_ to do?”  
They both laughed in agreement and Historia sped up her pace. “Let’s get going. I’m starving.”

As Historia was biting into her sandwich, something caught her eye. Outside, she spotted a freckled, dark face hidden behind a messy up-do of brown hair. She tried waving, but Ymir didn’t see. Instead, she stepped through the door and looked for a place to sit. Again, Historia waved, and this time Ymir saw her.

“Hey, Algebra girl,” Ymir shouted and began walking over to her.

Historia gestured for Sasha and Connie to scoot over on the crappy cafeteria table bench, and Ymir squeezed in next to them.

“Guys, this is Ymir. We have PE together and I guess I’m somewhat of a personal tutor. Ymir, this is,” she pointed to each of them in turn, “Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Connie, and Sasha."

“Well, aren’t you popular, freshie," Ymir smirked and greeted the others in silence.

They were just eating (somewhat awkwardly) for a while until Sasha asked Historia where she was in cheer practice.

“Oh, that’s what I meant to tell you. I was tutoring Ymir,” she replied with a hint of bragging.

Eren shot Historia a look. She returned it with a small smile, telling him to be quiet.

After another stretch of time with awkward eating and accidental bumps of various body parts between Ymir and Historia, Eren sighed and said, "Historia, don't we need to work on our homework for sixth period?” he was asking to meet with her privately. It seemed like everyone else knew that too, but they acted like homework was the reason.

She gave in and nodded her head. “Yeah, I forgot to write that conclusion.” Historia stood up and Ymir got up as well, grabbing the other’s wrist to keep her in place.

“Hey, I might need some more help with my Algebra. When are you gonna be able to meet again?”

“Um, on the weekends? I have cheer practice every weekday and I don’t want to miss any more.”

“How should I reach you?”

Historia grinned. “Oh! Here, I’ll give you my number. Call me.”

Before either of them could say goodbye, Eren dragged Historia off. They went into the hall, and Eren looked to see if it was empty.

“What are you doing? You just met this girl and you’re giving her your number?”

Historia frowned. “And what’s so wrong with me getting another friend?”

“No—you know that’s not what I mean. I mean—aren’t you, like, leading her on? Flirting?”

“What?” Historia gasped, hoping she could lie well enough, “Of course not! You met her for like, what? Ten minutes, and you think we’re together?”

Eren sighed. “I mean—I mean, if you _are_ , aren’t you worried about your parents will say? You haven’t exactly come out to them.”

Historia raised her voice. "I don't want to have this conversation right now." She stepped backward, thinking she would go to fifth period early, but Eren stopped her.

“No. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to go through this again. When you first came out to me, you were so scared. But you were stressed because you hated keeping it in. You need to be able to talk to your parents about this stuff. Your parents are pretty strict, but they love you. I’m sure they wouldn’t hate you for this. If they didn’t love you, they never would have adopted you. Not many people like to adopt kids when they’re, like, 9.”

Historia gulped. “Thank you, really. But I’m not into Ymir anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

Eren hid a laugh. “Okay, whatever.”

Historia rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, I gotta go. I actually _did_ forget to write that conclusion.”

Eren laughed and winked. “I’m gonna go meet up with my girlfriend. Say hi to yours for me.”

Fifth period went slowly, but it went. In sixth period, Eren kept giving Historia funny looks, making fun of her. She just ignored him, trying not to think about what it would be like to actually date Ymir.

Sixth period went even more slowly. Probably because it was right before seventh and seventh was when she would get to see Ymir.

When she was finally able to escape Eren’s antics and go to seventh period, it was one of the few times she was actually excited for PE. She hurried and got changed quickly, hoping Ymir wouldn’t skip PE like she did regularly.

She was surprised to see that Ymir was even dressed down. “Oh, hey, Ymir.”

Ymir smiled and greeted Historia back. “Hi.”

They ran together during PE, not talking, letting each other breathe instead. They kept each other’s pace, and it was one of the only times Historia felt calm while running.  
After class, Historia wanted to stay again, but she knew she had to go to cheer practice and explain why she was gone.

"Hey, Algebra!" Ymir called to her.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. You can call me after cheer practice, though. I get off at 5:30.” Ymir nodded and Historia headed off.

When she got to the field, she was met by Coach Ral and had to explain herself. She made up some excuse about having to go to a play her sister's school was putting on. She walked back to the team and was met by Marco and Sasha. "I didn't know you had a sister, Tori."

Historia shot Marco a look. “I told you not to call me that.” He shrank, obviously taking her anger seriously. She raised her tone to a friendlier one and said, “And yeah, I do. Have a sister, I mean. Her name’s Frieda. She’s my parents’ biological kid, and I hardly ever see her. She’s really nice, I hope you guys get to meet her.”

Sasha slapped Historia’s shoulder. “Okay, story time’s over. Time to practice.”’

They practiced for an hour until the football team had to use the field. As always, when they were heading into the gym, Reiner Braun, the captain of the football team, winked at her, and today he also whistled. She rolled her eyes and tried to ignore him.

They practiced for another hour, until 5:30 like always, and then changed back into street clothes.

“Nice job girls and guys! And remember to _show up_ tomorrow.” She was obviously aiming that remark at Historia.

She sighed and headed to the parking lot to wait for her mom to pick her up.

\--

When Historia got home, she was too tired from practice to lift her arm, let alone do homework. Her mom left her to do errands, and her dad was still at work, so she decided she had time to take a 15-minute nap.

She was woken at 7:06 by her cell ringing. She groaned and looked at the number. She didn’t recognize it, but she knew it was a landline in her area.

She answered it.

“Hey, uhm… Historia. This is Ymir.”

“Oh, hi!”

“Well, it’s kinda late, but maybe you could find a bit of time to tutor me?”

Historia looked around and listened a bit to tell if her parents were home. They weren’t.

“Hmm. My curfew’s at 8.”

Ymir tapped a pen. “ _Wow,_ your parents must not… really trust you. What’d you do?”

“Nothing. They’re just strict. Something with their other daughter maybe.”

“You have a _sister_?”

“Well, I don’t see her all that often. She’s 5 years older than me. And she’s their biological daughter.”

"Well that doesn't make you any less of sisters, does it?"

Historia paused and didn't answer. "I think maybe I could sneak out. My parents aren't home right now."

“You still have, like, an hour before curfew,” she paused. “Um, or _I_ could come over _there_ if it’s easier.”

Historia thought. That _would_ be much easier but she wasn’t sure if she trusted Ymir enough to be alone at home with her. _No, Historia. They're always saying stuff, ‘learn to trust people', ‘don't shut people out', ‘make new friends'. Just allow yourself to have one person you trust. One. Person._

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working on this fic for TOO long, and it's not done yet (but it almost is) but with the recent events in the manga (chapter 93) and the anime (episode 30) I thought the fandom needs more YumiKuri fluff for the time being. Also, sorry if the chapters are weirdly split up, when I started this fic I thought it would be a one-shot and MUCH shorter.
> 
> PS. I fixed the skin so the paragraphs would be indented so YAY


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ymir and Historia have a little study session. Then Historia and her friends take Ymir out for a night on the town.

Historia waited in agony, hoping her friend would be home before her parents. She heard the doorbell and hesitantly answered. She sighed in relief when she saw Ymir.

“Hey. My room’s this way.”

“Why are you being so… sneaky?”

Historia laughed. “Like I told you, my parents are strict.”

Ymir gave a slight gasp when she saw Historia's room. It was twice as big as hers. She felt like she shouldn't be in this room like she was disturbing royalty or something.

“Sorry for the mess.” Historia picked up various clothes. Ymir felt guilty for intruding. She realized that she might have seen forceful in her invitation.

“So, what do you need help doing? Algebra?” The blonde asked.

"No," Ymir paused, for once looking fully at the younger girl in front of her. "Just… History." She had to catch herself because she _almost_ said “Historia”. She then almost burst out laughing but held it in.

“Good, that’s my best subject.”

They sat on Historia’s bed, there wasn’t enough room for both of them at her desk and looked over Ymir's history homework. Historia kept checking the time, but Ymir never  
wanted to leave. Soon, it was after 9:00.

“My parents could be home at any minute.”

Ymir frowned but agreed. “I have to get to work anyways.” She stood up and Historia’s heart sunk. She realized she hadn’t done any of her homework.

“Okay, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Mhm.”  
\--

Historia didn’t see Ymir at lunch the next day. And she hadn’t finished her homework, for the first time that year. She didn’t’ see Ymir at PE either, nor did she call after school.

At cheer practice, all Historia could think about was Ymir. Why wasn’t she at school that day? But she realized that Ymir was probably at school the same number of days she wasn’t. She sighed, but she still hasn’t at her top game, and even Coach Ral had to ask her what was wrong. Historia didn’t give an answer. In fact, she didn’t really know what was wrong in the first place.

She got home and fell on her bed. It was finally the weekend. She decided not to do her homework right away, and instead, read a book she'd read maybe a hundred times.

Ymir got home after work and felt like punching a wall. At least she wouldn't have to go to another job at 9:00, but she didn't know how she was going to pay for her mom's rent. She greeted her siblings but didn't have the energy to help them with anything. She went to sleep.

They both thought about each other that Friday, but neither called each other.  
\--

“Historia, we’re going to be gone this weekend. We’re visiting your sister.”

Historia agreed, it wasn’t like she ever saw them anyway.

As soon as they left, she heard her cell ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Historia. It’s Mikasa.”

“Oh. Hey.”

“You sound disappointed. Did you want it to be your girlfriend?” It was Eren this time. Apparently, they were on speakerphone.

“Well, I talked to Eren, and we decided we want to get to know this Ymir. I think we should take her out.”

“You met her.”

“Yeah, but—“

“It’s not like I’m dating her.”

There was a pause on the other side of the phone.

“I didn't say that," Mikasa replied.

“I did.” Eren giggled.

A loud groan was heard. Armin was with them too.

“I’m sure you mean well, but I don’t really think that’s a good idea. It might give her the wrong idea.”

“We’re bringing Armin and Jean too. They’re both single, so you guys won’t feel like third and fourth wheels.”

Historia saw that they really wanted her to go. But she really didn’t want to see Ymir again, after not seeing her at school the day before. She was afraid Ymir was mad at her. It would be awkward.

“Fine. But tell me what we’re going to do.”

Ymir sat on her bed, watching the clock for 5:00 so she could go to her job. It was only 1:00, but it wasn’t like she could do any of her homework, she was too behind to know where to start. She had no hobbies, no extracurriculars. She sighed, not wanting to do anything. Then she heard the phone ring. She ran into the living room where the landline was.

"Hey, this is the number you called me on earlier. I was wondering if you'd like to hang out with me and some of my friends."

Ymir was surprised that Historia had called her, and frantically tried to search for an excuse. She looked toward her door, in the direction of her mother’s bed.

_“Get yourself a boyfriend. You need to make more friends. You can’t just rely on me anymore.”_

Ymir sighed, giving up. “Sure. Um, when is it?”

“It’s at 6:00, I think, but you can come at any time if you need to do something. We can all meet at the coffee shop downtown.” It was a pretty small town, so there was only one coffee shop _anywhere_ , and the downtown was barely down town.

Ymir was about to object in case it would interfere with her second job (she could just come a half an hour late after her first job, especially because it was downtown) but realized her mistake. She couldn't go even if she wanted; she had been fired the day before. She was so busy looking for another job that she neglected to go to school. She felt so bad for being gone – something that hadn't happened in a while, she cut class so often there was rarely any regret left at all -- and secretly missed seeing the little blonde, but she would never admit it. She desperately felt the need to keep up her job-hunt but thought about what her mom would say. She sighed and told her new friend, "I'll come. Might be a bit late, though."

Ymir finally got off work at 6:30, and for once had something to look forward to after. She was worried about her siblings but thought they could fend for themselves for one day. Making her way down the block, she hummed along to the radio. When she stopped at the coffee shop, the first thing she saw was Historia’s soft blonde hair. Ymir stepped out of her rusty truck and into the coffee shop, smoothing down her dark brown hair. She didn’t usually worry about her appearance, but she felt oddly conscious of it now.

“Hey, Ymir!” Eren was the first to notice her, as Historia’s back was to the door and Eren seemed to have been watching the door.

"Hi, guys," she greeted kindly.

Historia turned around and smiled sweetly at the sight of Ymir. The brunette sat down in an empty seat next to Historia. She slowly breathed in the smell of lilacs that Historia always wore, that faded in with the soft tang of coffee that overwhelmed everything in the room. “Did you guys get anything yet?” Ymir asked, and Mikasa shook her head.

“No, we just got here a few minutes ago.” Her gentle and cautious voice seemed to hide an overpowering aura of resentment. Eren placed a hand on her shoulder and her smile turned genuine, melting into an expression of true affection. She turned to him and they shared a tender kiss. Armin, their quirky partner who seemed to be everywhere with them even though it was _Eren and Mikasa_ who were dating, waved a hand at them. “PDA, guys.” Eren stuck his tongue at his blond friend and Armin frowned, but behind it, he was trying not to laugh.

Sasha groaned. “Can we get food now, _please._ I’m _starving_.”

Connie laughed at her. “Is food all you think of?”

She laughed and hit his arm.

Jean nodded, though giving a disgusted look at Mikasa and Eren. “I’m hungry too.”

Eren frowned. “Who’s gonna go order it, though?”

None of them volunteered, and Ymir suddenly felt aware of not having said anything. But it wasn’t like Historia had said anything either.

They decided to draw straws, but they weren’t straws. They were the stirring stick things they give you at the table. The three shortest were Ymir, Eren, and Jean. Eren and Jean groaned, and at first, Ymir thought it was about her, but apparently, they’d had The Longest Rivalry On Planet Earth. As they walked the few feet up to the counter, Jean made a couple of jabs about him and Mikasa being gross, and Eren joked to him about being single, then for some reason, they were on the subject of horses. Ymir had to hit them lightly on the shoulder for them to notice when they finally got up to the counter.

The kid at the counter was high school age and looked like he was probably a sophomore. He had dark brown hair and a bunch of freckles; more than Ymir, but not enough to make him look kiddish. Ymir read his name tag and it said ‘Marco’.

Jean stuttered a small “Hi,” before giving Marco the list of drinks and snacks that the rest of the table had told him.

Eren handed over the stash of cash that everyone had contributed to, and soon the three of them were waiting for their stuff. Eren and Jean were fighting, and Ymir was only half listening until Eren whispered to Jean, “do it, ask for his number.”

“For the last time, Eren, I’m not gay!” He said maybe too loud, and Ymir couldn’t help but laugh as she saw the look on Marco’s face as he handed them the tray of drinks. They both blushed, and Marco grinned a bit as he pointed to Jean’s drink. 10 digits. Jean’s face became wholly blushed, even the ears, and Marco’s freckles were covered up with a deep shade of red. Eren had been laughing ever since his first comment, and none of them said anything while they carried the food to the table. Jean took the sleeve off his drink and crumpled it up, but Ymir wasn’t sure whether it made it to the trash or if it stayed in his pocket.

They all stayed there for an hour, conversing about this and that, and though Ymir was the oldest one there she never felt out of place. It wasn’t until they were all talking about Mr. Jason’s class that she realized she was a junior among a bunch of underclassmen. Historia kept giving her soft accidental smiles that showed no teeth, and Ymir couldn't help but stare once and a while. That was the first time Ymir noticed how her golden hair framed her face like a softened halo, shifting as Historia fidgeted with it, but never altering her beautiful, pure face. Ymir caught herself thinking this and suddenly got the urge to move somewhere.

“Was there anything else planned for tonight?” She asked.

Connie and Sasha nodded.

“The best part,” Connie started.

“The arcade.” Sasha finished.

Eren laughed and Historia cracked a grin. Mikasa and Jean rolled their eyes. But soon, all of them were standing and hurrying out the door, Jean hiding a quick wave to Marco and Historia noticing, making a mental note to ask Marco about it on Monday at practice. Ymir felt swept along, on a mystical journey to The Arcade.

They had to walk a while to get there, and it was freezing, so they walked close to each other. Historia hugged next to Ymir, and Sasha held onto the back of Connie much to his annoyance. Jean shivered by himself, his hands in his pockets. Mikasa was wearing Eren’s jacket, and they were holding hands, embracing each other sweetly, with Eren’s head resting on Mikasa’s shoulder. Armin was hugging the other side of Mikasa, awkwardly squeezed up to her with their arms interlocked, but she didn’t mind.

Ymir, for the first time in a while, felt like she had friends. Sure, she had friends before. A very tall senior by the name of Bertholdt, his very short senior girlfriend Annie, and the captain of the football team, Reiner. But they were their own little trio and it felt weird to get between them. Besides, they were delinquents and Ymir was desperately trying to get away from that crowd.

They finally made it to the old, run-down arcade that looked like it belonged in the sixties. Ymir wondered why a kid’s arcade was open at 7:30 at night, but she realized everyone in there was high school age. They stepped in and lights around the door lit up. The middle-aged guy at a counter in the back greeted them.

Sasha and Connie instantly ran towards the DDR, Mikasa and Eren ran to the shooting games, and Armin followed them, Jean close behind, obviously wanting to try and beat Eren. That left Historia and Ymir by themselves, and Historia smiled at her.

“C’mere.” She led Ymir to the corner, where an old Bubble Bobble game was, and popped in a quarter. “I’m a master at this game.”

“Do you guys come here every week?” Ymir asked.

"Pretty much, yeah. It's fun, though. Jean and Eren usually lose a lot of money trying to best each other, and Sasha and Connie play the hardest level on DDR. They even sing along with the songs." She laughed a bit at that. "Armin likes the car racing games, so he and Mikasa usually play that. Then, towards the end, we all gather around the air hockey table and have a championship. Whoever wins gets a prize, and the losers all have to pay for dinner.” She grins, remembering simultaneously every memory she made there. All the times she won, how Eren and Jean get into a wrestling match every time the puck gets stuck in the middle, when Connie accidentally got his cornea scratched by a flying puck. “The manager hasn’t kicked us out yet, though. We’re, like, his only customers.”

Ymir smirked at how dorky these people were. She liked it.

There was a long pause where Ymir was just watching Historia pop bubbles as fast as she’d seen anyone do it.

“Hey, Ymir,” Historia said after the silence had lasted for a few minutes.

“Yeah?”

“Why were you gone yesterday?”

“What do you mean? I cut all the time.”

Historia took her eyes off her game for a second to look Ymir in the eye. “I know there’s a reason. You wouldn’t want help with math if you didn’t care about school.”

Ymir sighed. That was a good point. “Well…” she paused, debating whether she really wanted to tell Historia or not. She decided there wasn’t really any other clear choice unless she wanted to lie, which she didn’t want to do to her new friend. “I lost my job.”

“What?” Historia was shocked.

“Yeah. I was late one too many times, I guess, and I got fired.”

“Why?” She just had to ask.

Ymir stared at Historia’s focused eyes, and muttered, “Just drop it, okay?”

She remembered the other day, when they were on Historia’s bed, sharing each other’s company as they flipped through Ymir’s history textbook. Then she remembered hurrying to get to her job, then her boss yelling at her. She remembered how she was too angry to cry. And she knew they had a good reason. But she remembered the minutes when she actually forgot about the job she was missing when she was just looking at Historia's tired but awake face, her bright eyes as she explained all the reasons behind the French revolution.

Historia gulped and the tension in the space between them grew. “Okay, I’m sorry. It was just… I needed to study more and I’m not very good at time management I guess.”

There was another long pause. “Why do you cut class so much? You can’t have lost your job every day.”

Ymir still felt like this was too personal a topic, but for some reason, she felt like she had to answer. “Well, I have 4 siblings. My mom’s… sick. She doesn’t have the energy for a job. So I have – _had_ – two jobs. I help my siblings with their homework, and I never have time for it all. So sometimes I'll skip school to do the laundry or get my mom's medicine or catch up on sleep. Or I'll skip and look for a new job." Ymir put a lot of emphasis on the last sentence, obviously telling her friend that’s exactly what happened yesterday.

Historia sighed. “I’m sorry, I pried too much.”

Ymir squinted. “Why do you even want to know in the first place?” Her voice was getting louder by the minute.

“I— I’m just worried about you. You need an education, you know. Don’t you want to go to college?” She was yelling now, too.

“Well, don’t be worried for me. I don’t even deserve you worrying about me all the time. What did I do to you? Stop being stupid and don’t worry about someone like—” Suddenly Ymir noticed that they’d attracted attention. She swore she heard Eren say, “a little domestic argument” and she breathed heavily, trying to calm down if only just a bit.

She made herself small. “I…”

Historia got closer.

“I’m sorry, I just never,” she paused to look at Historia, and see that even in the low light and twinkling LEDs of the arcade, her hair was a halo, “I just never had a friend like you. Like you guys. I never had someone like you that _cared_.”

She felt like a weight was lifted, but as she looked in Historia’s bright, shining blue eyes, she could sense a sadness behind them, hidden the calm waters of turquoise.

“Of course I care about you.” Her serious expression melted into a smirk. “I think it’s time for your first air hockey.”  
\--

“Go-go-go-go- _go_!” Eren shouted at his girlfriend as she attempted to best Jean. The puck was flying so quick Ymir was worried it would wind up flying away, but it didn’t. Then suddenly, she heard the ‘plink’ sound the puck made when it made a goal, and it took Ymir a bit to figure out who had won. But then Jean yelled, holding the puck triumphantly, and she knew.

“The winner of the semi-finals is…” he frowned a bit as he had to grab onto Jean’s hand to lift it up in the air, “Jean Kirstein!” He gave a funny look at Mikasa, and she grinned back. Then, everyone was looking at Ymir. She realized it was her turn. Earlier, she had beaten Armin by a long shot (he was too busy listening to Eren’s cheers and Mikasa’s laughs) and so she made it to the semi-finals.

“Jean Kirstein vs. the new girl, Ymir!” Eren prompted them to shake hands, and they did, while Ymir tried not to laugh. The sound of quarters clicking was heard, then the loud whirring of the game. Ymir breathed deeply; she wasn’t about to lose on her first try. Eren counted down, “3…2…1…” then gently set the puck down in the exact center. “Go!”

Suddenly Ymir's whole body was alight with excitement, from the low fluorescent lights all around them, the fact that no one was there besides the manager and them, and mostly the fact that she could hear Historia shouting at the top of her lungs, "Let's go, Ymir!" and saying some of the official cheers in her little cheerleader voice.

She could feel when the puck came to her side, but could barely see it, and soon she and Jean were both bent over in a wide, powerful stance. He shouted swears a couple times, first when he barely missed, and second when he smashed his pinky against the side of the game. He kept playing, though. She was so intimidated by his serious face that she thought about giving up. But then, Ymir heard Historia shouting, “use Geometry!” in slow motion, and realized she could use angles to find where exactly she needed to hit the puck to go in the goal. She concentrated hard, and the puck seemed to slow a bit. She drew lines from it to the goal, until she knew exactly where to place it. Closing her eyes tightly, she gave one last big hit, and it went straight in the goal.

“Winnerrrrrr!" Eren yelled, and everyone cheered. Ymir was sure that every store on Main Street could hear them. Eren held up her hand and gave her a small medal made from paper scraps.

“Beginner’s luck,” Jean groaned, and they all laughed.

Historia gave Ymir a high-five and said, “Nice job out there, champ.” Ymir laughed and Historia whispered, almost too soft to hear, “I think you’re going to fit in nicely.”

They went to dinner after that, and Ymir felt relieved that she didn’t have to buy. She had used up all her pocket money at the coffee shop. They ate and mostly conversed about school and teachers and sports. Ymir didn’t mind being out of the conversation, she was fine just listening and laughing along. The food was good. She hoped she could get home in time to feed her siblings.

The next day was quiet, and Ymir surprisingly did all her homework. Historia’s tutoring had helped her, even if during half of it Ymir was just staring at Historia. Ymir was lazy and introspective that day and never thought of doing anything. She hated going out too much anyway.

Historia greeted her parents when they came home and asked how it had been visiting Frieda. They avoided the question.

That Monday, Ymir went to school. It was a boring day in class beside the bread Historia shared with everyone during lunch. She made it in Home Ec. After school, Historia had cheerleading practice and Ymir had her job downtown. When Historia got home, she decided she would tell her mom about Ymir so she could continue to tutor her without having to sneak around. She then called Ymir.

Historia had to wait a minute for Ymir to pick up.

“Hey, Ymir. Do you have time for help on your homework?”

“Um, yeah, I guess.”

“Well, I was also wondering if I could come over to your house?”

“No, I don’t think you want to.” Ymir’s breath could be heard in the receiver.

“Are you sure? I—”

“Yeah, your house is really cool anyway.”

Historia smiled, but then she realized Ymir couldn’t see and thought it was silly to smile at nothing. “Oh, and could I get your cell number? We could just text. It feels strange to call a landline, and what if you’re not home?” She wanted to add ‘what if your parents answer’ but decided against it.

“Oh. Well, thing is…” she paused. “I don’t have a cellphone.”

Historia hadn’t thought of that. “I’m sorry…”

Ymir softened her tone. “It’s fine, nothing to worry about.” She let out a small laugh. “I could give you my address number and we could send letters back and forth.”

Historia laughed at that. “Sure thing,” she answered sarcastically, then said, “See ya.”

“Yeah.”  
\--

Ymir drove into the Reiss' driveway once again. It was long and beautiful; there were colorful flowers, though they weren't as colorful in the fading light. She parked outside, her old rusting car next to their white newly-waxed one. She knocked on the front door, which was answered by a bright-faced, tall, thin woman. Her hair was blonde, but it had been dyed, as seen by the gray roots.

“Hello, Mrs.… Reiss.”

“Welcome. You must be Ymir.” She stepped aside to reveal their crisply lit, tidy foyer.

“You have a wonderful home.” She said, louder and more enunciated than she ever talked casually, and started heading to Historia’s bedroom. Then she remembered that Mrs. Reiss hadn’t been at home the first time they studied, so she might question how Ymir would know how to get to Historia’s room.

“Uh… where’s Historia?”

“Up in her room, second room on the right.”

Ymir remembered this. “Thanks,” she muttered.

Historia heard a voice from downstairs. _Ymir’s here._ She sighed and wasn’t sure whether to stand up or keep sitting. She stayed where she was for a lack of a proper reason for either. She was relieved when Ymir just casually walked into her room and sat down on her bed, draping her backpack over her shoulder and onto her lap.

“Hey, Ymir. What do you need help with?”

“Just math again.”

Historia gave a friendly smile. “Okay. Your class is on chapter…”

“Five.” Ymir handed Historia her paper, and Historia nodded.

“This is the graphing, okay.”

Historia smiled as she helped Ymir, as always. Teaching was much more fun than doing it on your own.

“…and you use the asymptote to find which portion of the graph it’s in, then draw the graph from the x-intercept.”

Ymir drew the graph as Historia checked the time. It was 7:49.

“Oh, no. You have to leave soon. Wait—” she stood up “I just want to do one more thing.”

“What?” Ymir asked.

Historia smiled and pulled out some flashcards from her backpack. “I need _you_ to help _me_ with homework.”

Ymir gave her a confused look and she replied, “I have a presentation in Current World Problems and I want to practice it on somebody.”

Ymir smiled softly. “I’m happy to help.”

She swept her blonde hair into a ponytail and tied it there. She spoke loudly and passionately, her face lighting up as words fell carefully and planned from her mouth. She never once used the flashcards.

When she finished, she stood silently for Ymir’s feedback. But Ymir couldn’t speak, she was so astounded. “Wow, that was…”

Historia frowned, prepared for a let-down.

“Wonderful. When did you learn to give speeches like that?”

Historia’s cheeks pinkened, and she beamed. “Well, I mean, I love doing it, so that oughta have helped, right?”

Ymir smirked. “I gotta go before your mom comes in and yells at me.”

“Okay. See ya tomorrow?” Historia grinned.

"'Course," Ymir replied, and stood up, rushing out the door.

Historia wavered. “Wait.” She grabbed Ymir’s hand.

Ymir whipped her head around, irritated at the gesture. Her anger was fueled by the fact that her rough hand was now being held by Historia’s soft, delicate one. Their eyes met and the gaze lingered there. The gentle acceptance of this instant surpassed the crudeness of the sudden moment of clarity. Then it passed. Both girls shook off the sparks that had been created in that moment.

“Wish me luck,” Historia whispered, barely audible. She couldn’t keep her eyes off the other girl.

Ymir blinked, and without thinking it through, bent down. Her lips touched Historia’s cheek for a split second, but that spontaneous action felt like minutes. She grinned, and whispered, “luck,” to the blonde.

Historia wanted more, wanted Ymir to stay, but the brunette had already slipped out the door and was gone, out of reach; forever it seemed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided that a chapter of this fic will be posted every Sunday. I'm not sure how many chapters there will exactly because I haven't split them all up yet but there's at least 1300 words so probably 10 chapters or more. Thanks so much for reading, don't forget to give kudos and a comment! It always means so much to me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Historia and Ymir take a little trip.

Then it was Monday. Historia couldn’t think, but at least she could speak. During homeroom, she could hardly blink without thinking of the little kiss. _Historia, you’re being stupid. It didn’t mean anything. We’re both girls so I’m sure she didn’t mean it like that._

She heard her teacher yell “Historia?” and realized he was taking attendance. She managed to squeak out a small “ here,” and then tried to compose herself. She half-listened to the announcements, until one little word.

“…Paris.”

Her head shot up and she stared at the speaker in the front of the classroom. “Again, the theme for this year’s Sadie’s Hawkins dance is Love in Paris.” A few kids scoffed. Historia tried to calm herself down, at both the thought of the dance and the word ‘Paris’. She could feel tears rising in her eyes, but she breathed inwardly and stopped them. “Be strong,” she told herself.

She volunteered to go first for her presentation, despite the lump in her throat and the memories of long ago and yesterday caught in her head. Her voice never wavered, and she kept telling herself to calm down, though she never did.

She finished quickly, her speech not nearly as energetic and passionate as she had hoped, but she was still confident that she had gotten her point across. She rushed to her seat, ready to bury her head in her books once again.

After a few minutes of listening to other people’s voices presenting but not knowing a thing they were saying, she couldn’t take it anymore. She excused herself and headed off to the restroom.

Breathing heavily, she stepped through the empty hallway, her eyes burning from the tears that hadn’t quite fallen yet.

Being in the hall when no one was there was a strange phenomenon, seeing something usually so busy and crowded. It was like she was a ghost. This was a kind of relieving thing; like no one could see her or judge her, like she wasn't there, like she wasn't anywhere. She caught herself thinking about how nice it would be to just not be anywhere.

She could feel her mind going down a path she did not want it to go down and stopped it. She shook her head and turned the corner in the hall. The bathroom was on her right and she strode through the door. No one was in the cramped bathroom. It smelled like a sewer mixed with cheap deodorant. She sighed, avoided stepping on anything, and sat on the toilet. Normally she would be reluctant to sit down on anything that dirty, but she couldn't hold the tears in anymore, and needed to hide. She kept quiet, though she could barely keep in her cries. All she could think about was her sister and her parents and death and how when she saw Ymir all of it went away.

She didn't know how long she'd been in the bathroom, but soon the bell rang. Panic spread through her, but she suppressed it, shook it off. That was when she told herself to suck it up. She wiped her face with toilet paper and stood up. Then, she wondered how many people had been in there with her. Stepping in front of the sink, she looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. _I look like death,_ she thought.

That made her smirk. _How can people be so strange? So many emotions, so much to feel, so much pain, and yet all we can do is joke about it?_

And she burst out laughing. A different type of tears in her eyes. She laughed at the irony of everything, and the fleetingness of everything.

Then she heard the door open. She froze. She tried to reach into her backpack for her makeup, but there wasn't enough time. The door opened and the person who came in was Ymir. _Of course it's Ymir. It's always her._

Ymir gaped. "Uh… shorty?"

Historia returned the brunette's stare.

In the blonde's silence, Ymir hurried into the stall. Historia scowled and decided to resume getting out her makeup and reapplying it. She tried to ignore the creeping memory of last night to no avail.

Soon it was all she could think about. She kept trying to think of reasons to have wanted more.

None came to mind.

_Historia, make more friends. You just wanted to make more friends, that's it._

She almost burst out laughing at her own attempt.

_Everything is so fleeting._

"Hey, you know I can tell you were crying, freshie," she heard behind her.

Historia gasped at Ymir's presence.

"Hey, don't do that. And stop calling me weird things."

"Well, aren't we on edge today?"

Historia didn't answer. Instead, she finished up her makeup and put it back in her backpack.

"What were you crying about?" Historia could almost hear genuine interest in the brunette's voice.

_Everything is so fleeting._ The thought kept flowing through Historia's head. She sighed.

"Ymir, can I ask you something?" She knew, she _knew_ she'd regret saying that. She said it anyway.

"Hmm?"

"I want you to come with me and talk to my sister."

\-- 

“This is a mistake.”

That’s all she said, and heard no reply, as the two girls jumped into Ymir’s old truck together.

“Are you ready?” Ymir smirked to Historia.

“No.”

Ymir nodded and backed out of the school parking lot.

“You know, I’ve never—”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re going to say you’ve never cut class. Mrs. Goody-two-shoes.” She mumbled the last part derisively.

Historia laughed a bit at that. “No, well, I was going to say I’d never asked a girl to take a spontaneous road trip with me while in the bathroom after crying during History class, but sure.”

Ymir turned her head to see the sarcastic look in the younger one’s eyes. She laughed aloud and soon they were laughing together. Then the laughing dulled to smirks they shot silently at each other.

Then they had been driving 15, 20, 30 minutes, and they were just enjoying each other’s company; an understanding that Historia was missing French and Ymir was missing Business and neither of them cared. Historia turned on the radio, but Ymir didn’t object. The music was obnoxious and repetitive, but they danced along. Ymir kept asking for directions, but Historia knew exactly where she was going. She’d been to visit her sister so many times she lost count.

They didn’t know how long they’d been gone, but Historia assumed it was around an hour and a half, that’s how long it takes to get to her sister’s town. They reached the small town and Historia led the car down a path. It was small, windy and bumpy and it was basically inside the woods.

“This is where she lives?” Ymir asked.

Historia kept her eyes forward and replied, “keep going straight.”

Ymir nodded and continued along the road. Trees made way to more trees and Ymir was beginning to worry about being lost.

“Here we are,” Historia whispered, her eyes watering as Historia squinted against the bright sun, which was now high in the sky.

Ymir let out a small gasp as they both stepped out of the truck.

“Historia…”

There was a little break in the trees where a square patch of dirt was turned up. Old tombstones protruded from the ground. Historia stepped slowly up to one of them, and knelt down.

“Hi Frieda. I’m sorry I didn’t bring any flowers today. I don’t think you would approve of picking flowers from around here, so I guess instead I’ll…” she looked around. Her eyes landed on Ymir and she gave a soft smile. “I’ll introduce you to someone new.”

“I, uh…”

Historia patted the spot beside her and sat down completely. Ymir joined her.

“So, Frieda, this is Ymir. I’ve been tutoring her for a while now, and… well we may or may not have skipped class to come here. I know you wouldn’t like that, but I needed to come here.” Her eyes watered, and she finally let the tears fall. She covered her face and let the tears through her fingers. “I’m sorry.”

Ymir patted Historia awkwardly. “I’ll, uh, leave you two alone for a minute.”

Historia wanted to tell Frieda everything. Her mixed feelings about Ymir, her waxing numbness, and her hatred toward her parents. But what she really wanted was to have Frieda back. Hugging Frieda always helped everything, no matter what. It would send all the problems away. But now she knew she could never touch her sister again. And that hurt more than the problems themselves.

She yelled, as loud as she dared. Let it all out. _Why is everything so fleeting?_

She yelled until her voice was hoarse. After that, she just sat, thinking about everything and nothing.

“Frieda died two years ago. When I was 13.”

Ymir stepped closer again.

“You know, when I first saw you, you reminded me of her. But now that I’ve met you and know you, I can see that you two are perfect opposites.”

Ymir stayed silent, but sat down next to the blonde.

“I always thought I had to keep my feelings in.” She thought back to her parents, her _biological_ parents and winced at the thought.

_"Stop crying!” Smack. “God, she’s so annoying!” Smack. “I should’ve made you get rid of her.”_

She blinked and realized Ymir had been staring at her eyes.

“Who knew the little freshman cheerleader girl was so strong.”

Historia shook her head.

“Why do you hide who you are? Who are you doing it for? I think you should just live for yourself. And never change who you are.”

Historia laughed and leaned onto Ymir, “That’s funny. That’s what she always used to say. And, speak for yourself.”

Ymir grinned. “Look at who you’re speaking to. Don’t talk like that to your upperclassman.”

Historia snickered. She caught Ymir’s gaze and hers softened. Again, her hair was a halo. The small space in time and place was just for them, and in that second Historia no longer felt to need to tell her sister everything. Everything could be told to Ymir through just that gaze.

A small movement from one, a minuscule breath from the other, until soon their faces were inches from one another. Brown reflected into blue so that the two colors were mixed together. Then both were closed, and in a small explosive moment they kissed. It didn’t need to be planned, it seemed natural at the time. Ymir’s hand became buried in Historia’s blonde hair.

Then it was over. Both girls looked at each other in joyous bewilderment.

Historia looked down, but Ymir kept her gaze. “What, are you scared?” Her voice came out shakier than expected.

The younger girl shook her head. “Just…” She picked something off of the ground. It was a figurine of the Eiffel Tower. “Freida always wanted to go to Paris with me. That was her dream.” She brought her burning blue eyes back up to meet Ymir’s. “So… do you wanna go with me?”

Ymir raised an eyebrow.

“No, I mean.” She was flustered. “To homecoming. The theme is Love in Paris.”

“What a coincidence.” Ymir joked. Historia deadpanned. Ymir changed her expression. “Well… It’s Homecoming, right? Aren’t the girls supposed to ask the _guys?”_

Historia scoffed. “I didn’t think I looked like a girl who’s interested in guys.”

They both laughed again, and this time Ymir pulled Historia against her. “Is that a yes?”

“Oh, right. Yes.”

Historia giggled. “You’re so dorky,” she muttered. Ymir heard, but pretended not to. They stayed like that, leaning against each other, in that graveyard, in bittersweet company, until they both remembered they would probably get in trouble if they stayed much longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't get this chapter posted sooner. Sunday was Mother's Day and I was really busy and I've been busy a lot since Finals are coming up. I hope you like the new chapter anyways. Don't forget to kudos and comment!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ymir and Historia buy dresses for Sadie's.

Historia closed the front door quietly and told Ymir to wait in the foyer. It was 5:30, after cheer practice, and stepped upstairs to her parents’ bedroom. She had seen both their cars in the driveway, so she knew they were both home early.

Upstairs, her mom was working in her office and her dad was working out in the gym. “Hey Mom, Dad. I have something to tell you,” she said, standing in the hallway between where her parents were. They both looked up from what they were doing. Her mom put down her papers and stood up; her dad turned off the treadmill and stepped down. “What is it, sweetie?”

“Well… I was gone from a few of my classes today…”

Her father furrowed his eyebrows. “Why?”

“I… felt sick, and I threw up in the bathroom, and then Ymir helped me to the nurse, who told me I should go home. But I wanted to stay and go to cheer practice, so I stayed there. It went away mostly, now,” she lied shakily, though she had rehearsed it in her head on the way there.

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry to hear that.” Her mom said, brushing Historia’s hair with her fingers. Historia frowned, she hated when her parents acted like this.

“There’s something else,” she paused, twirling her fingers together and looking down at them. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, raised her head, then opened them quickly. “I asked someone to Sadie’s.”

Her parents smiled, “who is he?”

Historia smiled back, “I’ll go get her.” She put extra emphasis on _her_.

She hurried down the stairs. Seeing Ymir’s impatient face, she laughed excitedly. “C’mon,” Historia said, grabbing Ymir’s wrist, and dragging her up the stairs. Ymir tried to protest, but softened her face and let Historia have her fun instead.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she pulled Ymir next to her. She didn’t say anything as she let her parents react.

To Historia’s surprise, her dad laughed. “And you said Historia was going to be single all her life.” Her mom gave him a jokingly mad look, then hugged Historia. “I’m so happy for you.”

-

“Bye,” Historia whispered to Ymir as she walked the brunette out of her house.

“Goodnight.” Ymir replied. Historia smiled at her and held her hands tight.

There was a pause, when neither of them wanted to leave the other. They didn’t say anything, instead feeling each other’s hands in their own. Their eyes were both alight with excitement for the future.

“So, uh…” Historia started, “after school, do you wanna pick out our dresses?” This made Ymir blush _violently_ at both the thought of wearing a dress and trying on dresses with Historia.

“Er… sure.”

Historia grinned. “I’m glad. You know, you only have one more year before you graduate and… you know.”

Ymir nodded, knowing all too well what that meant. “Well, that’s what I said last year,” she joked, hoping to lighten the mood. Then, once again, silence.

“Ymir…” Historia muttered, her gaze drifting away from Ymir’s brown eyes. Her face got red, and she held up a hand over her mouth, trying to hide it. Then she sucked in her breath, and steeled herself. Closing her eyes, she stood up on her tip-toes to reach Ymir. This second kiss was sloppy and short, but it had the same kind of feeling. Warmth between them was created and the world around them was filled with uncertainty. The only thing they knew is that they wanted to kiss again.

Historia lowered herself back onto her heels and said, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Right?”

“Right. See ya,” Ymir said, awkwardly. Then she stumbled off the porch and into her old truck. Historia watched as Ymir walked then drove away, until she was no longer in sight. She leaned against the door, thinking about the dance and what it had in store.

-

Historia walked to school that day, and got to school early. She looked around the front entrance to the building, thought she didn’t really expect Ymir to be there early. But she wanted to see her. She knew they weren’t technically _together_ yet, though she didn’t really know what that meant. The only thing she knew was that she wanted to see Ymir more than ever.

The bell rang, and Historia knew that she couldn’t be late for class, especially after skipping yesterday. _I can see her during lunch._

The classes went by slowly, but strangely, she had more motivation. Maybe it was that she could feel her sister hugging her, holding her close, telling her how she would never want Historia to end up like her. She could feel that moment more than she ever had, after the years Frieda had been gone. It gave her hope that the memories would never, and they didn’t hurt as much. It gave her faith.

Maybe it was that, instead of having her face heat up when she thought of kissing Ymir, she felt joyful and hopeful. She realized it was one of very few times she had felt happy since her sister’s death.

-

“Historia.”

The blonde turned around. She was walking from Band, her flute in hand, to the lunchroom. “Hey, Ymir.” She smiled widely, and Ymir noticed her bright red lipstick. She stepped up next to Historia and they walked together to the cafeteria. They made their way to Historia’s normal lunch table, and sat down on the bench next to each other, Jean on the right of Historia and Connie on the left of Ymir. Everyone greeted the two, and when Mikasa and Eren came in late they were greeted too.

The group talked about various things, none of them really important. Mostly small talk. After Historia finished her food, she listened to them but didn’t join in the conversation, and instead moved her hand under the table on top of Ymir’s. Ymir looked at Historia, surprised, but she returned the look with a shush and smirked. Ymir laughed a bit, but tried not to be too obvious as she slowly wrapped her fingers in the other’s. They sat like that, listening but not listening to the others, sharing glances, and feeling each other’s fingers intertwined.

Suddenly Historia realized something. Her friends didn’t know yet. And she decided she wanted to keep it a secret. Surprising everyone at Sadie’s made her smile, and though she wanted to brag a bit about this, she could imagine the look on everyone’s faces. Plus, Ymir didn’t really seem like the bragging type.

And she needed to sort out with Ymir whether they were _dating_ dating, and what this really meant. She was really new to this sort of thing.

 _We can talk about it after school when we pick out dresses_ , she thought, and was instantly reinvigorated with excitement for the event. _We only have less than a week until then._

She tried not to imagine too much with the danger of getting her hopes up, but it was too tempting. The lights, the music, the feel of her friends and Ymir just having fun and not caring about anything. The uncertainty of it all brought her back to the day before when all she could think of was the fleetingness of life, and how maybe, just maybe, it might be better just to leave. But now, she couldn’t imagine leaving this. This chatter from her friends about almost nothing, the miniscule movements of Ymir’s hand on hers, the feeling of the small things of everyday life that seemed to stretch forever back in her memories: with her family at the dinner table, her sister falling asleep next to her, even flashes of her biological parents, in her mom’s arms, the color of her dad’s eyes, the smell of the house. It brought a warm and safe and _normal_ feeling that she wanted to stay in forever.

Then lunch ended.

-

“Ugh, where is she?”  Ymir was waiting at the front of the school for Historia who was supposed to be begging Coach Ral to let her skip cheer practice _one_ more time. They were supposed to meet after she went to go do this, but Historia was nowhere to be seen.

But soon Ymir came rushing up next to her. “Sorry I’m late, Coach was being stubborn. But as soon as I told her it was for Sadie’s she budged a bit. Said something about her high school days.”

Ymir breathed through her nose in a half-laugh, then said, “let’s go, we want as much time to try on,” she paused, her face reddening a bit, “dresses.”

Historia laughed. “You know, you don’t have to wear one if you don’t want.”

Ymir crinkled up her nose, thinking. “Well, c’mon, it’s a school dance. I _should_ wear one. And it’s not like I’ve never worn one.” She decided not to add, “though I haven’t really worn one without giving up a fight”.

They walked to the dress shop (it was pretty close to the school) while talking about various things. School, the dance, both of their friend groups. Awkward small talk, mostly. So when they got there, they both seemed relieved that they could quit trying to find things to talk about. Then she remembered what she was going to ask Ymir.

“Hey, I think… I think we should keep this secret for the rest of the week. To surprise the others.”

“Sure, I mean they’re your friends.” Ymir replied, though she was pretty excited to show off her new girlfriend to her new friends.

“Speaking of which, when am I going to meet _your_ friends?”

Ymir waved her hand, ignoring the question, and Historia rolled her eyes. Ymir opened the door to the store.

They were greeted by a woman in her late thirties. “Hello, ladies. You’re shopping for Sadie’s, right? Are your dates coming or do they already have suits?”

Historia and Ymir exchanged glances, and smiled at each other. They simultaneously reached for the other’s hand. “Actually, we’re dates,” Historia spoke up.

Ymir wanted to tell the lady off, but decided to just mutter something obscene under her breath.

“Oh,” the woman said, a bit startled but not disturbed. “Who do we want to start looking for first, then?”

Historia looked up and Ymir, then nodded to herself. “I will,” she said, smiling.

The woman took Historia off into the other room while Ymir tried to find a place to sit. She kept thinking about how spontaneous this was, but she knew that other people asked each other to school dances without knowing them. _I still have another year in school. That’s a whole ‘nother year to get to know her, and learn from her. Think of this as the start of something new between you. We’ve known each other for about a month now, and she told me her deepest secret. She must really trust me. But who would trust_ me _?_ _There’s nothing trustworthy about me._

Ymir tried to calm down before she smashed the mirror that stood in front of her. She decided to busy her mind by making a list of things she needed to buy from the store on her way home. By the time she was done, Historia came out of the dressing room along with the woman, but she didn’t have her dress on currently. “Why don’t you have it on?” Ymir asked, pointing to the plastic bag she was holding that contained the dress.

Historia frowned playfully, “It’s a surprise.”

Ymir sighed and went over to kiss Historia on the cheek, causing her to blush a bit, before following the woman into the dressing room.

“You want a dress, right?” The lady asked Ymir.

“Yeah, I do.” Ymir answered, caught a bit off guard from the question.

“Good thing I have some dresses that match each other,” the woman muttered to herself while she searched through the rack on the far side of the room. “Ah-ha. Here it is.”

Ymir glanced at the dress, and saw that it was a fairly simple and tasteful dress, light grey with a blue ribbon tied around the waist. _Boy, that is_ way _too girly for me,_ she thought. _But if it matches Historia’s… I guess I’ll try it._

She took the dress into one of the stalls and changed into it. She tried to remember the last time she wore a dress, and that maybe it was the last time her mom made her wear one to Christmas at church (even though she said she didn’t believe in Jesus or church) probably a year or two ago.

She looked at herself in the mirror and her face turned red, mostly not at the sight of herself in the dress, but at her imagination running wild again. She thought of the two dancing like in a fairy tale, and Historia was Cinderella, running down the steps behind the school gym. Ymir laughed at herself, and stepped out of the stall, telling the woman, “I’ll take it.”

Then the two walked back to the school, hand-in-hand, both trying to catch glances of the other’s dress.

- 

Ymir drove Historia home, then begged to come inside.

“I have to do homework. Do you think you could do some without needing help?” Historia told her.

Ymir wanted to tell Historia she could do _anything_ and she didn’t need _her_ to do anything, but she decided that saying something like that probably wouldn’t help the situation. Not to mention she was doubting the validity of that statement. Instead, she just nodded, and Historia gave in and opened the door for her girlfriend.

“Hey Mom, Dad?” They were _actually_ home.

“Yes?” her mom replied.

“Ymir’s here. Can she stay for a bit?”

“Sure,” her mom replied, and Historia dragged Ymir up the stairs.

“Okay, I’m gonna do my homework. If you need help with yours, just say.”

Ymir sat down on Historia’s bed while Historia went to work at her desk. Ymir, avoiding work, looked around the room, and staring at Historia as she worked. Eventually she wanted to get her homework out, but then she saw that Historia wasn’t doing her homework, she was scribbling something on her paper instead. She stood up to go peek over her shoulder.

Seeing Ymir, Historia said, “Hey, do you need help with your-”

“Wow, that’s _really_ good,” Ymir gaped.

“No, it’s just a sketch. It’s terrible.” Historia frowned.

“It’s so realistic—wait. Is that that one girl from that doctor show?”

Historia’s face turned red. “Well, yeah.”

“I love that show! My mom used to watch it all the time…” she balled her fingers into a fist when she thought about those times.

Historia saw this, but ignored it and laughed. “Wow, I didn’t see you as someone who would enjoy dramas like that.”

“Well, I admit it’s kinda stupid… honestly I just thought the main character was really hot.”

They both burst out laughing, and Ymir decided she should let Historia alone after that. “You should do your homework,” she said.

“You too, Ymir. You haven’t even started, have you?” She sounded more worried than she should’ve been.

“Uhh, yeah…”

Historia hid a small laugh and put away her drawing. She sighed, and tried to figure out her math homework. She kept almost falling asleep, and decided to switch to History to keep her awake. She finished her History quickly and easily, then was going to switch back to math when she heard snoring behind her. She swiveled her chair and saw Ymir snoozing on her bed with her textbook across her chest.

She stood and walked over to Ymir to wake her up, but she looked so comfortable. _Oh well,_ she thought, and carefully moved Ymir’s homework off her and placed a blanket over her.

Suddenly Ymir’s eyes shot open, and she grabbed Historia’s hand. Historia let out a small laugh, and fell onto the bed. Ymir attacked the blonde with tickles. “You’re not getting away,” Ymir tried to say above Historia’s loud protests.

Historia laughed and tried to think of an escape plan. She saw Ymir’s eyes were tearing up with laughter and Historia decided to go for it. She leaned in and kissed Ymir until she stopped and melted in with the kiss, and then they both fell on the bed.

“What was that?” Historia said, trying to keep in her laughter.

“Hey, you needed that. You looked so bored.”

Historia smiled at Ymir’s considerate words, thought she still acted mad at her. She punched the brunette, then kissed her forehead. “Well, I’m more tired now, thanks to you.”

“Sorry,” Ymir said with no hint of apology.

Historia, staring in the other’s brown eyes, began to become more and more tired. Ymir hugged her close, so that Historia could hear Ymir’s heartbeat. And they both fell asleep before they could ask what would happen if Historia’s parents came in and saw them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is late again. I'm a horrible human being who forgets to post every Sunday.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ymir, Historia and friends have a party before the dance.

Wednesday and Thursday passed. Ymir and Historia tried to avoid meeting up with each other during school to avoid suspicion. But they met up after school every day, and studied together. And on these days, they both actually got some homework done.

Friday was a bit different, however. Historia’s friends were planning a party during lunch, as it was the day before the dance, but because they were all geeky underclassmen, it was a completely different kind of party than the usual high school after parties. Historia was a bit embarrassed of their parties, but Ymir kinda liked her dorky friends, no matter how much she made fun of them.

“Okay. So first we order pizza and then we can play card games until the pizza comes, then we can play spin the bottle maybe, and—“

“No one agreed to spin the bottle, Jaeger,” Jean protested.

Eren ignored him and kept raving, “then we can either watch a marathon of Friday the Thirteenth or we could watch Night of the Living dead--”

“Eren.” Mikasa interrupted. He stopped. “I thought we were going to watch _real_ horror movies. Scary ones.”

Eren rolled his eyes, “but those are the best ones!”

Armin frowned and said, “I’d rather watch Pixar.”

Sasha and Connie exchanged looks. “Can’t we just bingewatch all of the British Baking Show?”

Ymir smirked at Historia. “Historia wants to watch Grey’s Anatomy,” she muttered.

Historia punched her arm. “Hey.”

Suddenly the bell rang, which caused them to all split off to go to class. On the way to English with Eren, Historia awkwardly kept her silence, trying not to say anything about Ymir.

But Eren said something anyway. “Historia, are you and Ymir a thing? I see the way you guys are flirting. If so, I called it.”

Historia, for some reason, got very angry at Eren. “Why do you care?” she growled.

“I mean, I--”

“If we are, so what? Why do you want me to be dating her so much?”

“Historia, I just… I just want you to be happy.”

There was a pause as they reached their classroom but Eren pushed Historia along so they stayed in the hallway.

“When we first met, you seemed so miserable. It was only, like, third grade, but you didn’t have any friends. That’s why I talked to you. And now that I’m dating Mikasa and Sasha and Connie are dating, and who knows _what_ is going on with Jean, I thought you might feel left out again. I don’t ever want you to feel like that.”

Historia smiled widely and hugged her friend. “I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

Eren gave a small smile back. “I understand. It can be hard losing a parent.”

Historia looked around the hall and saw it was almost empty; class was about to start. “Can I tell you a secret?”

 --

They slipped into class right after the bell rang, and were so relieved when the teacher was late too. They pulled out their stuff and got ready for class when Historia realized she hadn’t done her English homework the night before because Ymir asked her to draw the character from Grey’s Anatomy and she forgot all about it.

“Eren, can I _please_ copy your homework? Please?”

Eren gave her skeptical eyes.

“I’ll do a favor for you, anything.”

Eren smirked. “Okay, fine. And I know just the favor.”

Historia frowned. “What?”

Eren looked around. “So, remember last time at the coffee shop? With Jean?”

Historia nodded.

“You know Marco, right? He’s on the cheer team. So, can you invite him to our party? I want to surprise Jean.” He snickered.

Historia laughed. “O-kay,” she said, turning to Eren’s homework on her desk and hurriedly scribbling it down onto her paper. “This party’s going to be _very_ interesting,” she muttered.

 --

Historia checked her makeup, waiting for Ymir to pick her up. She was once again overthinking everything. _What does Eren have planned for this? Is he going to tell everyone?_ She sighed, and decided to not worry about it. She put on an extra coat of lipstick, even though she knew Eren’s party always featured makeup-ruining activities, and wasn’t really an activity that required any. But when she was stressing like she was, she needed to put on makeup excessively. Cover up her insecurities, change her identity, if only slightly. She was fixing her eyeliner when she heard Ymir knock on the door.

“Ya ready for our date?” Ymir said, raising her eyebrows in a sarcastically suggestive manner. She was wearing a sweatshirt and a beanie, and tight jeans. She looked extremely casual next to Historia’s dress and heavy makeup.

Historia rolled her eyes, but took Ymir’s arm and didn’t reply to the question.

When she got to the car, Ymir showed off her driving skills by backing up perfectly, then raised her eyebrows again.

Historia couldn’t help but laugh. “You know, when I met you, you weren’t this much of a nerd.”

Ymir gasped excessively. “Wow I can’t believe you would say that.” She frowned, then added, again sarcastically, “you know you love me better this way,” then winked.

Historia smiled, then saw Ymir’s hand move down from the wheel habitually as she drove down the main road. She took it, and Ymir didn’t flinch, just tightened her hand. Historia stared at Ymir as Ymir stared at the road the rest of the ride.

\--

“Here we are.” Historia pointed at Eren’s house, and Ymir drove up the driveway. There were already 3 cars there. Historia mentally noted them as Jean’s old parent’s truck, Connie’s parent’s minivan, and an unknown new-looking car. She lowered her eyebrows, but continued down Eren’s house’s extremely-long driveway.

She looked at Ymir next to her then knocked at the door. She heard yelling between Eren and someone she didn’t recognize the voice of. The stranger opened the door, and didn’t say anything.

Historia exchanged a confused look with Ymir. “Um, is this the Yeager’s house?”

The man, who looked to be around 30, replied, “oh, yes, I’m Eren’s older brother, Zeke. I bet you’re here for the party.”

Historia nodded, and Zeke led them to the basement, where the others were. When she entered the TV room, she was surprised to see Marco was there. “Marco? I didn’t know you knew Eren.”

“I don’t,” he replied, and Eren interrupted him.

“I called him,” he shot a smirk at Jean, who returned the look with a glare. “Kirstein didn’t want to be lonely.” He snorted.

Historia dismissed the looks Jean and Eren were giving each other and sat down next to Sasha, with Ymir on the other side of her.

“I didn’t know you had an older brother,” Historia promted.

“Oh, I hardly know him. He’s my half-brother and he’s 14 years older than me. He’s just visiting my dad for the weekend.”

Historia nodded, being reminded of her own sister. She shook the thoughts out of her head.

Sasha suddenly stood up. “I smell pizza.” Connie rolled his eyes at her, and stood up too.

“Food?” he questioned.

Eren laughed at them both and said, “you guys know we always have pizza on Fridays. We bought some extras for all of you.”

The two cheered and Marco followed them upstairs and soon everyone was interested in the food.

Mikasa picked up each box, searching for the Supreme, and stepped downstairs when she found it. “Thanks, Grisha, Carla,” she muttered as she passed Eren’s parents.

Sasha and Connie went straight for the pepperoni and Historia followed them. Jean grabbed cheese, and Marco awkwardly squeezed behind him to get the same. Ymir Eren asked for some Hawaiian.

“We have some, but it’s cheese-free.” He picked up the Hawaiian and showed it Ymir. She shook her head, so he handed the box to Armin, who took it.

“Armin’s lactose intolerant?”

“Yes, but he still eats dairy. I have to force it from his hands sometimes. That’s why we always get cheese-free pizza because he would eat regular pizza if he ate at home.”

Armin glared at him sarcastically. “What are you saying about me?”

Eren followed Armin back down into the basement, and they continued their conversation. Ymir just grabbed two slices of cheese and found Historia waiting for her.

“Sorry for not telling them to get you any. I didn’t know what kind you liked.”

“It’s fine,” Ymir said, and put her arm around Historia as they walked down the stairs.

“Hey,” Historia said, “we’re not telling them till tomorrow.”

Ymir frowned. Historia looked around to see if everyone was downstairs. Then she kissed Ymir. “We only have to wait one more day.”

They made their way into the TV room in the basement, and saw that the everyone was arguing. The words were too crowded to understand individually, but Historia could tell it was about what kind of movie to watch. She didn’t give any opinion, but Ymir decided to join in, saying she wanted to watch old black-and-white movies.

Armin spoke up. “Guys! Why don’t we just put all our ideas in a hat and pick one out?” Eren frowned, but no one objected.

Ymir was the only one with a hat, she they had to use her beanie.

Eren grabbed slips of paper, and they all wrote down one movie. Historia chose Sleepless in Seattle because she remembered watching it with Frieda and hadn’t seen it in forever.

“I’ll pull one out,” offered Jean, and he moved forward to do so. He closed one out and picked a paper, then read it, groaning. “The Twilight Saga. Who wrote this?”

“I wonder who wrote it…” Eren said, trying not to laugh. Mikasa shook her head.

Everyone decided that watching Twilight would be great to welcome two members into their group since it seemed like a better choice than some kids movie or a slasher horror movie.

After about an hour of laughing about how much Edward sparkled, they knew everyone wanted to stop. Connie had fallen asleep on Sasha’s shoulder, and Marco had seemed very uncomfortable the whole time until Jean went over to sit next to him, not wanting to sit next to Eren anymore, no matter how close he was to Mikasa when he did so.

“So… what do you all want to do now?” he raised his eyebrows and everyone looked annoyed. “Do you want to get to know the new members of our group, dear Marco and Ymir?” Seeing as how Marco had said maybe one word, and Ymir had only talked to Historia most of the time, they all kind of agreed. But they didn’t agree with what Eren said next. “How about 7 minutes in heaven?”

Mikasa smiled a bit but then said in a warning voice, “Eren. Do you want to lose all your friends.” No one really knew whether she was serious or not.

“What? It’s fun.”

“When have you ever played it?” Jean glared, looking like he was genuinely suffering.

Sasha spoke up, gesturing to Connie’s sleeping head on her shoulder. “let’s just do it for Marco and Ymir,” she looked at Connie, “we should probably leave soon.”

Marco looked so nervous, but didn’t say anything.

“Guess that’s what we’re doing, then.” Ymir said reluctantly.

Armin nodded.

They used Ymir’s hat for the names. “Okay, you go first,” Eren told Marco. Marco reluctantly stepped forward and chose. He opened his eyes slowly and tried to hide a silent groan. “Eren.”

Marco and Eren left, and awkwardly stepped into Eren’s basement’s small closet. Everyone decided to pretend they weren’t trying to listen in. At first, all anyone could hear was whispering. But after about 3 minutes, Eren  began to yell, and Jean made strange faces at the closet door. “Who do you think you are, Marco Bott?” Armin and Mikasa exchanged looks. “I know you mean well,” these words were quieter, but still audible. Then more, but even quieter, so only a few words could be made out. “Don’t…” “Jean…” “Friend…” and other strange sentence fragments you wouldn’t expect to hear from your lifelong enemy. Jean’s face remained a stone-cold frown as the speech became inaudible once more and the timer on Eren’s phone rang. “Time’s up, love-birds!” Jean yelled, and Historia, not really understanding nor caring what happened in the closet, looked up teasingly at Ymir. Ymir was about to ask what this look was about (though she already knew) when Connie, half asleep and trying to hurry things along, blurted, “Your turn, freckles.”

Ymir walked towards Eren, but before she got there had to slap Connie’s shaved head and comment, “Ya’nno, Marco’s also freckled, dimwit.”

Connie frowned, but was too tired to get up or protest.

Ymir pulled out a little piece of paper and looked at it derisively. “Okay. Food girl, come’ere.” She pulled Sasha up and reluctantly took her into the closet. Then she got an idea. “Sasha. You’re close to Historia right?” she said as soon as the door was closed.

“Yeah I’m in cheer with h—”

“What does she like? Like…”

Sasha stared at her in confusion, with a small smile beginning to grow. “Wait, do you…”

Ymir whispered under her breath. “She doesn’t know. She’s not supposed to know either. Shi-”

“I won’t tell anyone. I’ll help you out. But I’ll have you know you owe me now.” Sasha winked.

Ymir sighed and thought for a bit before replying, “Fine.”

“So, she really likes the color lavender. So, purple flowers would be great, if you want to get her flowers. She likes roses, every girl likes roses, right? And she also likes pink…”

Ymir spaced out, imagining herself riding up in a limo to Historia’s front door, coming out looking elegant with a huge bouquet of purple roses. She would romantically prance down Historia’s front pathway, then get down on her knees in front of the blonde, kissing her hand. Dream Historia looked stunning, and somehow was just as tall as Ymir in her heels. Ymir would stand up and they would share a kiss, then leave without Historia’s annoying parents to steal the spotlight and cry and take pictures.

“I don’t know, I think she likes History? So, like a—”

The timer went off, stopping the brunette in her tracks. Ymir was brought out of her daydream, and realized that they were not exactly alone. She hoped she had whispered quiet enough.

Historia had fallen asleep on against the couch, and Ymir snickered. “Hey, hey, Historia,” she whispered while gently prodding the blonde. Historia started to snore, and in a moment of spontaneity, Ymir decided to pick her up, draping her arms over her neck.

“Uggh. You’re heavier than you look.” This was going to be a lot harder than she imagined. But she stuck with it, slowly carrying Historia up the stairs and to the Yeagers’ front door, the others following her.

She could her them talking, and hoped they weren’t assuming anything from Ymir’s gesture. “See ya later, guys.” She walked to her truck and set Historia in the passenger seat. The blonde sat there quietly, and Ymir wasn’t sure if she was awake or not.

She jumped into the driver’s seat and started to take Historia home, knowing full well that in a few hours she would be back to the same place. She shivered with anticipation just thinking about it. Glancing at the blonde huddled up in the seat next to her, she smiled, thinking about the day ahead. She felt the “L” word rise in her mind, but silenced herself, knowing it was too early, too wrong a time, too _new_ to her.

Then she heard the small blonde stirring in her sleep. “Ymir,” she muttered almost inaudibly in her sleep. “I… love you.” Ymir snickered at Historia, and tousled her blonde hair. She said nothing in reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to add notes when I posted lol. But yeah, there's only going to be 6 chapters so guess what's going to happen next chapter?? That's right, the dance ;))


	6. Chapter 6

It was finally The Day. Historia stretched her legs, waking up excitedly. She yawned and smiled at the new day.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Historia yelled. “What?! Oh my god, Ymir!”

Ymir laughed. “Hey, don’t be so jumpy.”

“W-what happened? I don’t remember leaving the party. Did I drink? Did—”

“Relax. You were totally out of it, so I carried you to me car after the party. I didn’t know what to do because you were still comatose when I got to your house, so I brought you back here. I was going to tell your parents, but they weren’t home. And I didn’t want to break into your house. I know we said we would never do this again, after _last time_ when your parents came in, but I didn’t see any other option.”

Historia blushed at the mention of the embarrassing _last time_. She still couldn’t manage to explain to her parents that they had just fallen asleep while studying.

Ymir let out a small laugh. “Funny how we’ve spent the night in the same bed _twice_ but we haven’t, you know.”

Historia frowned at Ymir disappointedly.

“Hey, calm down. It was a joke.”

“Sure.” Historia replied, but there was a hint of joking on her voice.

“Well you’d better get home soon before my mom finds us.”

“Oh, yeah. Better.”

Historia stepped out slowly into the hall while Ymir stayed in her room.

 _Hmm, this is a pretty small house. Wonder where her mom is._ She soon made it to the door, and couldn’t answer that question.

“See ya,” she said, too quiet for Ymir to hear.

\---

Ymir had some time to kill, so she decided to get Historia a present, like she had planned. Her discussion with Sasha didn’t help very much, so she just went to the flower shop to get some ideas.

“Welcome to Sam’s flowers! Just call out if you need help,” she was greeted as she walked in. She saw some purple flowers, but didn’t really think any of them fit Historia enough. She sighed. _Flowers aren’t a very personalized gift. I should just leave._ She was about to walk out when she spotted a small figure on top of a shelf near the exit. She pulled it off and looked at it. It was the exact same Eiffel Tower as the one from Historia’s sister’s grave, but it looked brand new. The image of it from before looked dirty, rusted, and old from exposure over the last 2 years. This one was made of shiny black metal and felt heavier than she imagined.

She rushed to the front counter. “Excuse me, how much is this?”

“Sorry, that’s not for sale,” he gave Ymir a weird look, “that’s a decoration for the shop.

“I’ll pay anything.”

The salesperson saw the despair in Ymir’s eyes. “Fine.” He waved Ymir off and Ymir ran out the door in excitement, waving a quick thank you to the salesperson.

 

When she got home, she decided to call Historia. It went to voicemail.

 _Hmm, I wonder what she’s doing right now. I hope she’s not ignoring me._ Wanting to rid of herself of these nagging negative feelings, Ymir took a shower. She thought about that morning and what she had thought of asking Historia to do. She scoffed at herself and quickly rinsed her hair.

Before she got out of the shower, she heard the phone ring in the other room. She quickly got on a towel, and, though she was still dripping, made it to the phone. “Hello?”

“Oh, hi, it’s me. Sorry I couldn’t answer earlier. I was busy. What did you want to talk about?”

“Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to eat out? Or do something before the dance?”

Historia was silent for a minute. “I don’t really know what I’d want to eat. Maybe you can come over and watch a movie, and eat some of my mom’s cooking?”

“Um, well… I can cook pretty well. Maybe I could bring some food to your house?”

Historia giggled. “You can cook? I can’t cook to save my life.” She paused. “That’s really cute.”

“Don’t call me cute!” Ymir yelled into the receiver.

Historia laughed at Ymir for a bit before saying, “see ya. Around 4:00?”

“Yeah, sure thing.”

“Wait, Ymir? I forgot to ask something.”

“Hmm?”

“Are… you going to wear makeup?”

Ymir’s stomach churned. She hated the way makeup felt and looked on her, but she wanted to wear it if it was for Historia.

“You don’t have to, you know. I just want to know.”

“I will if you put it on me. I can’t put on makeup _to save my life_.” She purposefully copied her girlfriend.

Historia smirked then said a quick goodbye.

\--

Ymir frantically tried to think of what to cook. She only cooked a few things for her siblings since they were little and super picky, but sometimes she would experiment.

After a few minutes of just trying to think, she decided to just make some macaroni and cheese from scratch. _It’s better than the box kind at least._ As she was pulling out the pot, her 8-year-old siblings. “What are you doing, Ymir?”

“Oh, I’m sorry guys. I hafta leave early today. I have a school dance. I can save some macaroni for you.”

The twins groaned at each other obviously. Ymir gave in. “Okay, fine,” she reached into her pocket to pull out a twenty dollar bill, “you can get Kev to order some pizza. Just remember to have him give the baby her bottle, too.” The twins nodded and cheered together. Ymir rolled her eyes and went back to making the food.

\--

“Oh my god! Mac and cheese!” Historia cheered. Ymir looked at her, confused.

“Why are you so excited about _mac and cheese_?”

Historia grabbed the pan and spun around. “I haven’t had even the Kraft kind since I was little!”

“Really?” Ymir smirked. She had never seen someone this excited about such a simple dish.

“Okay, I’ll grab a couple bowls. You can go upstairs, on the left is the multimedia room.”

Ymir stepped upstairs and took in the mammoth that was Historia’s house. You could see the dining room from the balcony-thing on the second floor, and that opened to a huge kitchen and a den with a big TV. _Multimedia room? I don’t even know what that is._

Historia quickly got out some bowls and silverware, then secretly grabbed a bag of chips, carefully so her mom wouldn’t find out.

“So, I only have some Pixar movies on Blueray, but there’s also Netflix, and Hulu, and…”

Ymir had already grabbed the big remote and was browsing through Netflix.

“Oh hoho, what’s this? Continue watching Orange is the New Black, eh?” Historia dived for the remote, and Ymir almost barely flinched in time, but Historia got the little box in her grasp.

“If you wanna watch a show, how about this one?” She flipped over one to Grey’s Anatomy, and they both agreed that was the best idea for now.

After about 5 episodes, it was 6:34.

“Oh my god! We need to get ready!” Historia practically screamed when she saw the time.

Ymir pretended not to be wiping tears out of her eyes (it had been a rough episode) and jumped up. “Right, the dance. Good thing I brought my dress and heels.”

They both zoomed to another room -- Historia her bedroom and Ymir the bathroom -- and changed. Ymir came out first, and waited for Historia. When she saw her girlfriend finally emerge from her bedroom, she couldn’t help but smile. She grinned so much her cheeks hurt.

“You look beautiful,” they said, in unison. Then they awkwardly said nothing, until Historia said, “I need to do your makeup.”

“Yeah,” the brunette replied, and they both stepped into the bathroom.

“So… I’ll…” Ymir spaced out since she didn’t recognize any of the words Historia was saying. She just looked in whatever direction her girlfriend told her to.

“Okay, close your eyes.” Historia said. Ymir complied, and Historia smirked, reaching in to steal a surprise kiss. Ymir laughed into the kiss, but didn’t fight it. Then Historia broke it. “Sorry, but I need to finish your makeup.”

Ymir lifted her eyebrows. “At least I have lipstick now.”

“Oh, shut up!” Historia scolded, hitting Ymir with the back of a brush.

After a few more minutes, she was done. “Okay, I just need to fix mine now. It’ll only take a second.”

Ymir looked at herself and saw a whole different person. “Wow,” she breathed.

Historia patted her girlfriend. “C’mon, we’d better leave.”

Historia glided downstairs and Ymir followed her, stumbling over her shoes, and almost falling. Historia tried not to laugh. She was interrupted by her mother.

“Hey, Historia, when’s your date gonna – oh, she’s already here.” Historia’s mom lowered her eyebrows. “What were you doing? Is this like what happened the other day?”

“Mom!” Historia groaned, “I keep telling you, I’m waiting until marriage! Nothing happened!”

Ymir couldn’t hold her laughter and Historia shot multiple looks at her mom before they left.

“Have fun, don’t get drunk or anything,” was the only send-off she gave the two.

\---

On the drive to the school, Ymir perked up her eyebrows. “So, if you’re waiting for marriage…” Historia glared at her but she continued, “let’s get married after this dance.” Historia rolled her eyes.

They got up to the entrance to the gym and prepared themselves. “Okay. Everyone’s going to know now,” Ymir said, more to herself than to Historia. They were about to open the door when Historia grabbed Ymir’s hand and they wrapped their fingers together. They nodded to each other, saying nothing, and opened the doors.

Instantly, the music overcame them. Eren and the gang rushed to see them.

“Hey, guys! Why are you late?” he asked.

“Well, umm…”

“Yay, it’s Historia and Ymir!” Sasha said, running up to hug them.

“Hey, guys, I think we’re—”

“Wait, are you guys dating?” Connie asked, looking at the two girls’ intertwined fingers.

Historia and Ymir exchanged glances. “Yeah,” Ymir said, “now, we’re going –”

“Called it!” Eren yelled. Mikasa gaped, and Sasha punched Historia’s arm.

“We’re going to get punch!” Ymir yelled, and took her girlfriend’s arm and pulled her away before her annoying friends could say any more.

“Phew,” Ymir said, “glad to get away from them.”

Historia wanted to stand up for her friends, but agreed wholeheartedly that she didn’t want to talk to them at that moment.

“Now that we’ve made an appearance in front of them, let’s go meet some of _my_ friends.”

“Oh? I was under the impression you didn’t have any.” Historia joked.

Ymir hit Historia’s shoulder. “They’re pretty nice. Kinda part of the _emo_ crowd,” she chuckled, though Historia could tell she was at least half-serious.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Ymir led Historia up to a couple: the guy a lanky, tall, brunet, and the girl and short blonde. There was also another person, who looked a bit drunk, and who Historia recognized. It was _Reiner_ , the guy on the football team that flirted with her almost every single day.

“Hey guys. This is my girlfriend,” Ymir paused. They smiled but said nothing, and the tall guy put his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Her name is Historia. Historia, this is Bertholdt,” she pointed to the brunet, “Annie,” she pointed to the short blonde, “and Reiner,” she gestured vaguely to the guy Historia already knew, who was dancing incomprehensively, now almost unquestionably drunk.

“Nice to meet you all,” Historia said, and the others said nothing, except Annie gave a slight nod and Bertholdt gave a slight smile.

Ymir and Historia stepped awkwardly past Reiner, and sighed when they were away from the encounter. “Sorry about my friends. They can be a bit hard to get used to.”

“They’re fine. Besides, my friends are a lot quirkier.” They both looked over to the bunch of people: Eren and Mikasa were cuddling up to each other, Armin keeping an eye on them while leaning against the wall and playing a game on his phone, Jean awkwardly smiling at Marco, and Sasha and Connie dancing uncontrollably. Historia stifled a laugh and then they both started laughing.

“I’m glad to be a part of them,” Ymir sighed wistfully.

Historia didn’t reply, but instead grabbed Ymir’s hand and dragged her to the dance floor next to their friends.

“H-Hey!” Ymir objected, but saw Historia’s blue eyes shining in excitement and went along with it.

“At least let _me_ lead,” Ymir mumbled, and they decided to just move awkwardly next to each other, since neither of them really knew how to dance.

Then a slow song came on and things got more awkward. Both girls tried to reach to put a hand on the others’ hip, but their hands bumped together.

“Sorry,” Historia said under her breath.

Then they finally got their hands figured out and began swaying together to the music. Historia’s face got a bit red, but she smiled at Ymir. Ymir smiled back. They stayed like that, in each other’s arms, slowly enjoying the dance and smiling silently at each other. Historia could feel her heart beating, and when she closed her eyes she could hear Ymir’s. Though she was embarrassed before, Ymir now loved her dress and the fact she could tell the whole world she was Historia’s _girlfriend_. They both felt as if suddenly, the world was made only for them. In that moment, they were living selfishly, living only for themselves and the girl right in front of them.

Then the song ended, the mood changed, and the swaying stopped. They looked around together at Eren and the group, and saw their friends were all dancing more intensely than before; even Eren and Jean got into a dance battle.

Historia sighed and thought of what she had planned earlier that day. She leaned up and whispered to Ymir. “I’m bored. Let’s get out of here.” Ymir blinked a bit at her girlfriend and laughed. “I need to show you something,” the blonde added.

Ymir followed her silently and they left the room, lights flashing, sound pounding, and floor shaking. When they got out of the building, their ears were buzzing a bit, but soon that didn’t matter as they were once again alone, sharing company with the harsh, cold air and the walk to wherever Historia’s mysterious location was.

\---

No matter how many guesses Ymir gave, Historia wouldn’t tell her where they were going. And no matter how many times Historia tried to change the subject, Ymir would keep asking.

They finally made it, but Ymir had easily guessed where they were going a while before they got there. It was pretty obvious, seeing that they were downtown and heading towards the building. However, it wasn’t very obvious why they were there.

Though the sky was dark, the night was still new. The arcade was still open when they walked inside.

“Why are we—” Ymir started, but the look on Historia’s face stopped her, implying she would get to the point in a second.

“Hey,” Historia called to the manager, stepping up to the counter, “this is the girl I told you about.”

“Oh yeah. I remember her. I saw her last time you kids all came here.” He turned to Ymir. “Well, welcome aboard. I’ve been needin’ an employee here for a long time. Just tell me the hours you want and we’ll work somethin’ out.” The man smiled at Ymir.

“You got me a job?” She looked to the manager. “Why are you being so generous?”

The man answered. “Your girlfriend here is a regular and she’s always helpin’ me out; cleanin’ up after her friends and such. She came up to me today and told me how determined you were. Plus, I could really use the extra hands around here.”

Ymir hugged the blonde. “Thank you so much.” She nodded to the manager, took hold of Historia’s hand, and led them next to the bubble game, where they sat down. Historia laid her head on Ymir’s shoulder, ready to go to sleep, but not ready to leave the moment.

“Hey, Historia.”

“Huh?”

“I have something for you, too.” Historia looked up, prompting her girlfriend to show her. The brunette pulled the Eiffel Tower figure from earlier from her bag.

“I saw it in a store earlier. I thought it was a one-in-a-million chance. You can keep it, and keep this one nice and tidy. To remind you of your sister.”

Historia didn’t want to tell Ymir that these figured were super common and cheap, and that she’d seen many in various stores. “Thank you so much. This will be my reminder of you.” Historia looked at the brand new statue and couldn’t help but think of the time she skipped school to go visit Frieda. But, this present was from Ymir. It was special, not only for its newness, but for the fact Ymir got it for her.

Ymir smiled. Historia wasn’t going to use the present as Ymir had thought, but rather for her, not her sister. She felt, for the first time in a while, that she had someone not to protect for herself, but someone who would protect _her,_ cherish _her_ , and not just because it was obligatory for family to love each other. It was Historia’s choice to be with Ymir. She wrapped an arm around her girlfriend and let herself melt into the blonde, and could barely keep her eyes open.

They both heard the manager leave a while ago, but they ignored the fact that they could be there all night if he had locked the door, and just enjoyed the present. They intertwined their fingers and let each other feel their heartbeat. They were full of giggles and short periods of falling asleep and waking up, not caring what time it was or what the others were doing. It was a pocket of time that was just for them. Living for themselves. “This is the best afterparty I could have ever asked for.” Ymir mumbled, before falling asleep once again, not knowing whether or not Historia could hear her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW, I actually finished writing a fic! Sorry I didn't post this sooner, I kinda hated the ending so I changed it a bit but I'm still not entirely satisfied with it. But, then I decided to just be done with it and stop being such a perfectionist.


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